ntwfrpsfandomcom-20200214-history
Nid'aigle
Nid'aigle is the last city of the genterre elves of Kyth, located along the eastern border of Corvus, close to Elacs and within the territory of House Accipiter. It was referenced many times in the main Medieval game, and Sieg traveled from there to arrive in Medieville, but the city itself was not featured in the game. It has, however, been featured extensively as both a formal location and a plot element in multiple sidestories and roleplays. Nid'aigle means "Eagle's Nest" in the language of the elves. The city is one part refuge, one part fortress. It is hidden deep in the forests of Southern Kyth along the border between Corvus and Elacs. They rely heavily on trade with the local human populations, and have a direct alliance with House Jade of Corvus. Though they prefer to remain as isolated as possible, they have naturalized as citizens of the human nation of Kyth for the sake of their continued survival. History More than three-thousand years old, in the earliest parts of it's history Nid'aigle existed as a small community directly along the banks of the Silver River (known by the elves as La Rivière d'Argent). Ranging out from the river on all sides where vast orchards. The city was known for it's orchards, and for it's excellence at the art of falconry, earning it the name that means "Eagle's Nest" in Elvish. (Though ironically the elves train very few eagles- most of their birds are falcons and other smaller species.) As time passed, and humans began to move into the Elflands, Nid'aigle was one of the cities that made a point to try and form a friendly relationship with the humans who settled in their area. About a thousand years ago a small town was founded in the shadow of Nid'aigle's forest, called Kolanth, which still exists and maintains a friendly relationship with the elves to this day. Kolanth has a number of customs that it borrows from its nonhuman neighbors, such as the Beltane Flower Festival. With more and more elves being pushed out of their territories by human encroachment and taking refuge in the few cities that were left, Nid'aigle's population boomed. Gradually it's orchards shrunk as more land away from the river was taken up by dwellings of the fleeing elves. In order to protect the swelling population, particularly from the slave raiders of Courdon, Nid'aigle like several of the Elvish cities established it's own company of knights. Though war is not in the nature of the elves, their long lives mean that they have the opportunity to gain decades and centuries more experience in war then humans and become formidable warriors. Due to these factors, over time Nid'aigle became less known for it's orchards and falconry and more as a military base for the elite Nid'aigle company. When House Jade and their allies established the region of Corvus, they placed securing the cooperation of the Nid'aigle elves and their elite warriors high on their priority list for pacifying the region. With their established friendship with the people of Kolanth, Nid'aigle submitted to the Jades relatively quietly. They agreed to obey the human laws and extend the protection of their warriors throughout Corvus in exchange for being left mostly alone and permitted to live according to their ancient traditions. Now official citizens of Kyth, Nid'aigle is the last remaining city of the elves in the country. Culture Elvish culture places a tremendous amount of value on patience and perfection. Everything the elves create maximizes both functionality and esthetic, to create tools, architecture, and even artworks that are both beautiful and excellent quality. However, where humans seek to gain dominion over the natural world and tame it to get the most they can out of it, elves prefer to live in balance with nature. They see themselves not as above animals and plants, but on-level with them, and hold a great deal of respect for the environment. As such, Nid'aigle is built around the trees and plants, being within the forests rather than toppling it, and allows natural foliage to overgrow its buildings. Elves also understand the behavior of wild animals a lot better than humans do, and can adapt themselves accordingly so that it is not unusual to see large wild creatures casually walking through Nid'aigle. Because the elves live for a very long time, they prefer to take an approach to their problems that best benefits the long term. Unlike humans, who see long-term repercussions as the problem of later generations, elves will likely still be alive when long term consequences are felt and as such this colors everything they do. It can take a very, very long time for the elves to reach a decision, and generally trying to hurry an elf only makes them dig their heels in and stall more insistently. Need to add stuff about manners, festivals, and views on religion. Language The elves speak a language distinct from the rest of Kyth, one that has changed very little over time because of the longevity of the speakers. Known only as "Elvish" or "Elfique" in its native tongue, the language is known for being soft, beautiful, and almost whispery sounding. Most of the elves speak this language exclusively despite being legal Kythian citizens. While the elves have some translators, these are difficult for them to maintain because of the relative speed at which human languages evolve and change over time. As such, translators are highly valued among the elves, and generally paid extremely well for their work. Elvish is metatextually represented as French, and when translated to English in a story that features other languages prominently, it is colored with the hex code #67E6EC, which looks like this. Military As a race the Elves have no propensity towards violence, and in fact many have professed that killing for any reason other then food makes them physically ill. That said, for most of their history they had no fighting force. It was only the the rise of Courdon and their frequent slave raids into the Elvish territories that finally forced the elves to establish a military force. The Nid'aigle company consists of about six to eight squads of about eight knights each. At any one time two are kept in reserve at the city itself, while the other four to six are on call to be assigned to missions throughout Corvus. Each company is run by a Corporal, and the entire company is led by a Commander and his or her Lieutenant. Because of the aforementioned lack of aggression in Elvish nature, training to become knights is a difficult process. The pages and squires must overcome their own instincts to pacifism and learn not only to fight defensively, but to attack and even kill. To that end, as with humans the begin training early to accommodate the prospective knights to this lifestyle during their formative years. Children usually become pages between the ages of seven and eleven. Usually at any one time only one page is in training. Normally human pages will serve their local lord to learn humility, etiquette, and obedience while being trained in combat. Lacking a lord, the Elvish pages instead make daily rounds throughout the city, performing errands and chores for the city as a whole. This reenforces the fact that they are now servants of the community, and also ensures that the citizens of Nid'aigle are personally acquainted with most of the knights and will trust them in a crisis. Depending on when they began their page training, they will be promoted to the status of squire at age fourteen to seventeen and be personally trained in real combat by a single knight-master. Only the most experienced knights may become knight-masters, to ensure that the squires receive the best training possible. The squires will become knights between the ages of twenty to twenty-three- determined by their readiness rather then how long they have or have not been squires. With no lord of their own, the Elves are knighted by the lords of House Jade. Industry As mentioned above, the primary industry for Nid'aigle is it's orchards, where the Elves farm cherries, almonds, figs, pears, walnuts, and pomegranates. They export these fruits and nuts around Corvus, as well as to nearby cities and villages in Elacs, Veresia, Rindfell, and Medieville. Aside from the orchards, Nid'aigle also creates a lot of luxury goods like paintings, pottery, and clothing in elven styles that are culturally distinct from even the very close by human territories. They sell these art pieces fairly expensively, and make a decent amount of money on them. Animal Husbandry They breed some cool animals yo Residents * Anri Hasek - Lifelong resident * Gavin Monfort - Lifelong resident * Harald Braham - Lifelong resident * Sabine Braham - Lifelong resident * Belial Braham - Lifelong resident * Morgaine Braham - Resident from 1285-1304 * Sieg Braham - Resident from 1285-1331 * Ophelia Braham - Resident from 1288-1315 * Peter Jade - Resident from 1092-1187 * Genevieve Laurent - Lifelong resident * Renard Laurent - Lifelong resident * Rollo Jaubert - Resident 952 - ~1100 and 1175-1183 * Giselle Jaubert - Lifelong resident Category:Medieval Category:Cities